Esther McVey: Has never taken a test to discover if she is “bewildered” – but should.

The articles debunking myths about the Labour Party, published on Friday and yesterday (Saturday), have stirred up the Tory-supporting trolls into a frenzy of misinformation and the Vox Political blog, Facebook page and Twitter feed have all been straining under the weight. For this reason, the blog has not had a chance to address the latest evil plot to scapegoat the unemployed for their own joblessness while funnelling cash to undeserving private firms like there’s no tomorrow.

Fortunately, here’s Jayne Linney with her take on the government’s new psychological test to discover benefit claimants’ resistance to work.

She writes: “Last December Sue Jones and I wrote an article, The Just World Fallacy, considering the purpose of the Governments Nudge Unit; therein we demonstrated how unemployment is not caused by psychological barriers but by Government’s failure to invest in appropriate growth projects, and how the aforementioned Nudge Unit works to spread the Tory mantra- the fault of worklessness lies firmly with the claimant.

“Yesterday Esther McVey announced the latest ‘ psychological test’ for unemployed people, an attitude profile of their ‘psychological resistance to work’; an assessment to identify if they are “determined”, “bewildered” or “despondent” about seeking employment.

“Claimants in three unidentified Jobcentres are currently being interviewed to assess their attitudes, norms and self belief regarding work; this along with a ‘background profile’, reported to determine if they come from a ‘troubled family’, the likely support of any partner in looking for work and their job history; will decide the ‘segment they are directed to.

“Having undertaken the assessment, it appears claimants will directed into one of the WorkFare programmes, or for those being deemed less ‘mentally prepared” for work, they’ll become subject to intensive coaching, most likely to be claimants physically spending 35 hours a week in the Jobcentre learning how to write cover letters and sit interviews!”

For the rest of the article, you’ll have to nip over to Jayne’s own blog, but her conclusion hits the nail right on the head:

“I believe it is Time this Government STOPPED playing games with the public purse, STOPPED developing programmes of no public benefit and STOPPED LYING to the People – What do you think?”

All that it is is another form of ‘behaviour modification’, it is just another form of psychiatric sophistry that doesn’t quite work.

Back in the dim and distant past ( 1980 ) I spent some time as a resident at a private ‘loony-bin’ ( strike that-I mean ‘psychiatric hospital ) in Northampton that goes by the name of St. Andrews.

This hospital had a couple of wards in which could be found ‘ kids-in-care’ ( social service cast-offs ) and the barmier members of ‘Establishment’ families.

The treatment regime adopted on these wards was a ” token system “.

What this actually meant was that each person undergoing ‘treatment’ was awarded a token for each time period in which they ‘managed’ to refrain from whatever ‘behaviour’ it was that was deemed to be detrimental to their own and others well-being.

If the person subject to this ‘treatment’ failed to conform, they forfeited a token. If the person lost enough tokens, they lost their next meal and got a mug of Complan or Build-up instead.

I must have lost about two stones in weight.

On the whole the scheme didn’t work, especially in my case when I told the Consultant Shrink ( sorry, psychiatrist ) to shove the whole notion of ‘behaviour modification’ to where the sun don’t shine and discharged myself from his ‘care.

Psychology in general – developed by intellectuals to create a false authority and manipulate the populace – the unfair manipulated system thereby continues unabated in all domains – but we’ll get a few self help books to help us through.

By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. This includes scrolling or continued navigation. more information

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.